Demand for Internet access and convergent broadband services has required traditional or incumbent service providers to evolve into high-speed Internet and multimedia providers. One of the main drivers of this evolution or change is Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology. DSL has allowed service providers, both incumbent and competitive, to create approaches that address this demand, or opportunity, and has been serving as a key enabler of this paradigm shift. As a result, deployment of DSL products has been doubling every six months. As this momentum continues to build, with growth projections of more than 85% per year, efficiency and cost containment are becoming critical. In order to capitalize on this marketplace, service providers must be able to quickly forecast customer demand and deploy their resources as effectively as possible. In short, the need for superior planning is acute.
As the demand for broadband capability increases, network providers are faced with decisions on which access architectures to deploy in which service areas. The choice of DSL technologies varies based on network geography, customer service demand, pre-existing structures, and the specific design rules associated with each technology option.
DSL technologies work by connecting a pair of “DSL modems” to a subscriber's existing telephone line. One of these modems resides at the subscriber's premises, while the other is built into a line card at a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) placed at either the central office or an appropriate cross-connect location in the field. Since subscriber premise modems are dedicated to each subscriber, their cost represents a fixed cost for DSL deployment. In contrast, DSLAMs are shared among subscribers and are expensive, so placing them judiciously can result in cost savings. DSLAMs are available in a number of different configurations that serve different numbers of subscribers at different cost levels. The variety of options and the potentially large number of subscribers make cost-effective placement of DSLAMs a complex problem.
In order to better understand the underlying problem, DSL may be viewed as being overlaid on an existing copper network within a single wire center. The existing copper network defines how subscribers are connected to the central office and dictates where DSLAMs can be placed. This network is logically a tree connecting subscribers to the central office. Typically, DSLAMs can be placed at the central office and suitable cross-connect locations in the field. However, in the context of long-range network planning, future subscribers to DSL are unknown, so forecasts can be a key driver for early deployment decisions.
The choice of DSLAM locations for a particular subscriber is further restricted by range constraints that impose limits on the allowable wire length from the subscriber to the serving DSLAM. This range limit is typically dictated by the type of DSL service, e.g., Asymmetric DSL (ADSL), Hybrid DSL (HDSL), Very high bit-rate DSL (VDSL), etc., to be deployed and the physical properties of the copper plant.
In general, prior art approaches to determining the location to deploy or place DSLAMs are manual in nature, requiring an operator to create a network architecture that will best meet future customer demand based on manual design rules. In particular, the demand models used by an operator suffer from the major shortcoming that the model is not directly related to potential short-term or long-term customer demand within a particular area. For example, a prior art approach comprises placing DSLAMs at the hubs of a hub and spoke model. By this deployment model the hubs are the host locations and correspond to either a corporate Local Area Network (LAN) or Internet Service Provider location. The subscribers are then connected via the spokes to the host location. This method or model for deployment is under-inclusive in that there may be many subscribers “beyond the reach of the host/hub” who desire DSL service. In addition, this method unnecessarily ties demand to the anticipated needs of large corporations and ISPs (Internet Service Providers). More importantly, deploying equipment in accordance with this methodology does not take into account future growth both within and outside the reach of the hub and is in no way related to a customer demand forecast.
Of utility then are methods and systems for placing and allocating DSLAM capacity to serve current and future demand for DSL service in a geographic area and which methods and systems are based on customer demand forecasts.